It's Just a House
by purplepotterhead24
Summary: Lily Luna Potter begins Hogwarts, where to everyone's surprise, she is sorted into Slytherin. Although she's excited about her new house, she can't help wondering how her family relationships will be affected...


**Chapter 1-The Sorting:**

Lily tried to subtly wipe her sweaty palms on her robes as Professor McGonagall placed the ancient,frayed sorting hat on her head. She hadn't expected to be so nervous but her heart was racing as the hat began to speak:

' _Another Potter ey? There's certainly some courage in you but there's also a desire to prove yourself and stand out from your family. You know what you want and how to get it. I said it then and I'll say it now, Harry Potter would've done well in Slytherin. He was desperate not to be placed there, but you don't seem quite so against the idea. Yes... I think it will have to be…'_ " **SLYTHERIN!"**

A shocked hush fell over the Great Hall as Lily stood shakily from the stool, but it wasn't long before the Slytherin table shattered the silence by erupting into cheers, many of them glancing over at the Gryffindor table with smug expressions. Lily didn't need to see her family's faces to know that they would be horrified at her sorting, so she hurried over to the other Slytherins. Another 1st year girl scooted over to make room for her as she approached and Lily slid gratefully onto the bench, relieved to be at least a little shielded from the hundreds of staring eyes.

"Hey, I'm Scarlett Montague!" the girl smiled at Lily, tucking her icy blonde bob behind her ear. "Are you okay?"

"I don't really know." Lily answered her honestly.

Scarlett laughed, "Yeah I bet it was a shock but don't worry, it's not as unusual to be sorted into a different house than your family these days. I mean not all your cousins are Gryffindors are they?"

"No." Lily agreed, "But none of them are…"

"Slytherins?" Scarlett offered, "I know your brother James still seems to think we're all evil but you don't really think that too do you?" she asked, biting her lip anxiously.

"Of course not. I'm not upset that I'm a Slytherin, I'm actually quite excited. I'm just worried about my family's reaction."

"That's understandable, but as long as you're happy they can't be too upset can they?"

"No... I guess not." Lily replied, but in her mind she wasn't so sure.

Lily began to relax a little as the meal went on, chatting to the other first years. They all seemed to have known each other since they were young and at first Lily had been worried about being an outsider. However they all made her feel included and she was soon laughing and joking with them as if she'd known them for years. According to Hunter Goyle a lot of the Slytherins knew each other due to their families being sorted into Slytherin generation after generation. Apparently their parents liked to regularly hold parties for the 'traditional Slytherin families'. "In other words the pureblood families." Ariel Vance explained, a look of disgust on her face. "Despite the fact that times have changed, most of them seem to have a bit of a superiority complex. I think they're trying to socialise us into their idea of a respectable society. It's ridiculous, there's not really such a thing as 'pureblood families' anymore-in fact if we all only married who they deemed appropriate, we'd end up with distant cousins as our only options and I'm not a big fan of incest thank you very much." She ranted. They all laughed at her last sentence and Alec Avery nearly choked on his drink, causing Enzo Pritchard to thump him on the back. Jordan Flint, Hunter, Ariel and twins Theo and Lyra Nott all had older siblings in Slytherin house so they spent the rest of the evening recounting the stories they'd been told of Hogwarts to the group. Phoebe Pucey was the first to announce that she was going to bed but Lily wasn't far behind her, and when she finally collapsed into her four poster, it was with a content smile on her face. She was soon asleep, her forest-green curtains pulled shut around her.

* * *

"Scarlett hurry up!" Lily moaned, pouting.

"Stop complaining, this hair doesn't look perfectly straight in five minutes flat you know!" she replied, carefully running the straighteners over her hair.

"But I'm hungry!" Lily whinged. Scarlett just rolled her eyes in response. Lily decided to give up nagging her so she made her way down the hall and into the common room, where she found Jordan was also waiting, sat on one of the rather regal looking, emerald green sofas. He smiled at Lily when she entered, "Morning." He greeted, "Ariel dragged the others down to breakfast already because she claimed if she waited any longer she would die of hunger." He laughed, "But Enzo only woke up a couple of minutes ago so I said I'd wait for him."

"Scarlett is taking years to get ready, apparently her hair is more vital to her than my burning hunger." Lily joked in response. The pair continued to talk, wondering what they could expect from their first lessons until they were interrupted by a voice, which came from behind Lily, making her tense slightly: "So my eyes didn't deceive me last night? We really do have a Potter in Slytherin…" She'd been worried that some of the Slytherins wouldn't want her in their house, she'd heard about their rivalries with James. However, when she spun around to face the speaker she relaxed. The teasing grin on the older girl's face showed that she was only joking around. "Isla Flint, nice to meet you." The girl said extending a hand, which Lily shook smiling.

"Harassing the first years again Isla?" drawled a boy as he sauntered towards the group.

"Nope! Just came over to wish my darling baby brother good luck on his first day!" Isla quipped, ruffling Jordan's hair. He frowned, spiking it back up again, something that made his sister laugh. Lily studied the other boy carefully, watching as he casually pushed his long, platinum blonde hair out of his eyes, which she noticed were a clear blue, almost like ice. He smirked when he caught Lily staring, causing her to look away quickly and blush.

"Scorpius Malfoy," he introduced himself, "Nice to finally meet Slytherin's very own Potter."

"I wish people would stop saying that." Lily grumbled, "Just because I'm a Potter doesn't mean I belong in Gryffindor."

"No I suppose not." Scorpius replied.

"We're still going to enjoy rubbing this in your brothers faces though." Isla joked. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Have you spoken to any of your family yet?" Jordan asked.

"Not yet, God knows what they're thinking at the moment. I guess I should try and find them after breakfast."

"Talking of breakfast...I'm ready!" Scarlett sung.

"About time!" Lily teased.

"I'll go and see if Enzo's ready and we can finally eat." Jordan jumped to his feet. He emerged a few minutes later with Hunter and an older boy, who turned out to be Scorpius' best friend, Isaac Finch-Fletchley. The group headed down to the Great Hall and joined the others at the Slytherin table. Lily found that Isla was instantly likeable, she was quick-witted and made everyone around her feel comfortable. Isaac, who was much quieter than Isla, was also easy to get along with due to his calming personality and lopsided grin. Scorpius intrigued Lily, he was clearly intelligent and very attractive but not as egotistical as Lily had expected him to be. He could laugh at himself and despite his confident, cocky manner, he was kind and very laid back.

"Right." Lily said standing up, "I don't think I can put it off any longer...I'm going to the Gryffindor table."

Lyra pretended to faint in shock. "Not the Gryffindors!" She gasped, "How will you cope in the presence of such strong, courageous lions?"

Lily laughed, "Wish me luck!" She called as she walked away.

Hugo spotted Lily making her way over to them and nudged the others. Most of them gave her friendly waves but she noticed that James was avoiding her eye. Rose stood up as she approached, "I think a family meeting is in order." She announced, taking control of the situation in her usual manner, "Let's all head to the lake." She said, hurrying off to collect Louis from the Ravenclaw table. Once they were all sprawled on the grass at the edge of the lake, Lily began "I'm guessing Rose wanted a family meeting because of my sorting so I just thought I'd start by saying that I know you probably all have your own opinions about it, but I'm really happy to be a Slytherin. I think it will be good for me and I really like all the people I've met so far."

Hugo replied first, "It's just a house Lil and although I'm a bit sad that we don't get to be in the same one, you being a Slytherin isn't going to cause any problems with me." He emphasised his last words, glancing over at James and Rose pointedly as he said them. Lily grinned at him, he was the cousin she was closest to. They'd spent almost everyday of their lives together playing Quidditch and staying over at each others houses whilst the others were away at Hogwarts.

Dominique spoke next, "Rose has called a family meeting like we're all having a crisis about you joining the dark side. It's not like it was in our parents day, as Hugo said, it's just a house. As long as you promise to introduce me to cute Slytherin boys I can date to annoy my dad, you and I will never have a problem Lil." Dominique said, with her usual bored expression on her face. Lily probably liked Dominique better than her other cousins did. Some of them struggled with her bitchy attitude and dry sense of humour, but Lily loved her honesty and knew she had a secret softer side.

"I've seen plenty of potentials already." Lily told her.

"That's my girl." Dom laughed. "Now can I please go, I have stuff to do, hearts to break." she joked with a straight face. "Honestly, how does Molly always get out of these gatherings? Why don't you force her to get her head out of a book for once in her life?" She stood up and blew a kiss at them all over her shoulder, as she headed back to the castle.

"Dom's right," Lucy said, "Lil being a Slytherin isn't a bad thing. She's happy there." Lucy shrugged and Louis agreed with her.

Lily smiled at them both, "Thanks guys."

Albus was nodding, showing he felt the same as them, "I guess I can get over you joining the snake pit little sister." he teased, winking at her.

"Very noble of you Al, a true Gryffindor."

He laughed at that. Lily was relieved, her family had been fine with her sorting so far. Lily felt a little relieved knowing that most of her family were completely unbothered by her house. However, it was James she had been the most worried about and he soon began to speak: "Lily, you've only been here for a day. I've been here for four years so I know what they're really like. They think they're above everyone else just because they're Slytherins." Rose was nodding so hard in agreement that Lily thought her head might fall off. James continued, "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that they are the children of death eaters."

Albus put his head in his hands exasperated, "Here we go again."

"Albus don't be rude!" Rose chastised him.

"He's not the one blaming a whole house for things that happened way before they were born." Hugo pointed out. His sister scowled at him.

"James can't you hear how ridiculous you sound?" Lily said, "You can't blame them for things they had no control over, they're good 're my house now and I'm not going to sit here and let you insult them."

"They're snakes Lily. You're a Potter, you can't associate yourself with people like them." Rose snapped.

"God, you say they act all high and mighty but listen to you two! You think you're superior because of your last name. Well news flash, you're not. And they are not any worse because of theirs." Lily told James and Rose, struggling to keep her temper in check. Roxy and Fred had been silent throughout but Lily knew that Fred would always back up James and therefore so would Roxy. "I can't talk to you if you're just going to go on and on about stupid stereotypes from our parents time here. I have to get to class."

"Me too." Hugo said, offering Lily a hand to help her up which she took gratefully. They waved to Albus, Louis and Lucy, leaving them to try and reason with Rose and James.

Despite her first day nerves, Lily had found her first day of classes enjoyable. She'd introduced Hugo to her friends and had met his. They'd all got on well despite being in different houses, which made Lily think that there wasn't many people holding onto ancient grudges like James and Rose were. Out of all the subjects she'd had that day, Potions had by far been her favourite. This surprised her as it was the one she'd been looking forward to the least. Although she'd expected to be bored by it because of its lack of spells and action, Lily had been completely fascinated as she'd listened to the sorts of powerful and potent potions she would be able to brew throughout her time at Hogwarts. For their first lesson they had attempted a simple cure for boils, which Lily had done very well at. It had even earned her ten points for Slytherin! Hugo's however, had ended up a gloopy mess in the bottom of his cauldron. Lily had also particularly enjoyed Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration. She'd done well in both but she hadn't shone the way she had in Potions class. Lily and her friends spent their evening meal excitedly discussing what lessons they'd enjoyed and complaining about the amount of homework they'd been set, which according to Alec, was bordering on child cruelty. After dinner Lily had scribbled a quick note to her parents, letting them know how she was settling in:

' _Dear Mum and Dad,_

 _Hope you're both okay and are not missing us all too much!_

 _I've been sorted into Slytherin! I'm sure you'll both be surprised, I certainly was, but I am loving it so far. The other students in my house are really friendly and I've loved my first day-especially Potions. The other Potters and Weasleys are adapting to my new status as a snake well, except for James and Rose, who are less than thrilled about it. Don't worry, I'm not letting them get me down, I'm sure they'll be over it soon anyway!_

 _Write back to me soon and make sure you say hi to Kreacher for me, I'm missing his cooking despite the amazing dinners here at Hogwarts._

 _Lots of love always,_

 _Lil xxx'_

Lily was one of the last Slytherins left up and was curled up in a high-backed armchair reading a book.

"You're up late, most people are usually wiped out after their first day."

Lily looked up and saw that Isaac had come into the common room and sat on the sofa nearest to her. "How did it go with your family?" he asked, looking genuinely interested.

"Most of them had no issue with my sorting. It was just James and Rose."

"That figures. James has been picking fights with Slytherins since his first day, he's still hung up on this old fashioned, idea that we're all evil. Rose is in a lot of my classes and apart from being a complete know it all, she's very proud to be a Granger-Weasley. There's nothing wrong with that of course, it's just that she acts all high and mighty about it." Lily nodded in agreement.

"No offence." He added, "I know they're still your family, even if you're not seeing eye to eye right now."

"None taken." Lily replied, "I just wish I could make them see how wrong they are."

"I know. I mean, I don't know what it's like to be a Potter in Slytherin but my family have all been Hufflepuffs, which is pretty much the opposite of Slytherin in a lot of ways. They weren't thrilled about my sorting at first either, I think it was so unexpected that they didn't know how to respond, but we got through it. You guys will too, I'm sure of it."

"Thanks Isaac." Lily smiled. She felt better knowing that he'd been through something similar.

"Now go and get some rest or you'll never get through lessons tomorrow. The professors won't go easy on you just because you're new, trust me."


End file.
